Resonance

The moment the ritual was completed, Chen Chuan saw the signs of blurring on his Second Self weaken substantially, which meant the setup was a success. Yet this only temporarily contained the entity's influence; it could not last very long. From this point on, the materials drawn across the surface were being continuously consumed. If the urban legend he had encountered before was too weak, this one was far too strong. Holding it in check over the long term without specialized esoteric ritual tools would require a ceaseless supply of materials. Putting aside whether such quantities could even be gathered, he certainly lacked the wealth to sustain it. If possible, he needed to find a way to weaken or eliminate it as soon as he could. If there truly was no way, he would have no choice but to abandon it. He had already done all he could. He had no objection to lending a helping hand when his capabilities permitted, but he would not offer endless aid without a baseline. After gathering his belongings, he came out of the backyard, brought along Big Brother Chong's corpse, and made his way back to the outer perimeter of the shantytown. Once the oppressive sensation faded, many of the surrounding dwellers rushed back toward the shanties. As a young man hurried past Chen Chuan, he thrust a bottle of cheap water toward him. Chen Chuan did not refuse it. He offered his thanks and took the bottle. Old Qi was sitting in the car, repeatedly nodding off. Several times he had nearly given in to the urge to smoke a cigarette to clear his head, but he had quit smoking ever since his daughter was born. Seeing Chen Chuan emerge, he glanced at Big Brother Chong's body and gasped in shock. "Big Guy Chong? Little Brother Chen, this... who did this?" Chen Chuan set the corpse down. "Someone must have come by after we left. They killed Xiaoman, and everything that followed was triggered by them." "Fuck!" Old Qi could not help but swear. Chen Chuan said, "The ritual I set up will hold for a day or two at most. Resolving it completely will be difficult, but weakening the urban legend and restricting it to a small area is still achievable—provided we track down the killer and eliminate them. But when I arrived, the people nearby were either unconscious or dead. We need to find someone who was in the area at the time and ask what happened." Old Qi looked at Big Brother Chong's corpse. "Little Brother Chen, I know someone who might be able to pull answers from Big Guy Chong's implant boundary credential." Hearing this, Chen Chuan asked, "Is this acquaintance of yours a resonator?" Old Qi nodded. Resonators, also known as ciphers, used specialized cerebral and neural implants to interfere with and disrupt the exchange of information between another person's boundary credential and the surrounding biological field. The skilled ones could even steal data from inside a boundary credential, or cause a person's internal implants to misjudge external stimuli and produce erroneous responses. Such individuals were originally trained by government departments and corporations to steal intelligence from competitors. As the technology trickled down and their numbers grew, they gradually filtered out into general society. Nowadays, many organizations hired them precisely to defend against data theft and intrusion. When Chen Chuan had browsed the news, he had seen warnings advising people not to communicate casually with strangers, lest resonators compromise their credentials or steal their data. He asked, "Is he reliable?" "I think there shouldn't be any problem," Old Qi replied. Chen Chuan said, "Then let's give it a try." Old Qi nodded. "I'll get in touch with him." He pressed a hand against his neck, an orange light flickering in one of his eyes. After a moment, he said, "He's there. Should we head over right now?" "Let's go." The two got into the car and left the area immediately, turning onto the main thoroughfare. After driving briskly for over an hour, they pulled up beneath a high-end apartment building. Following a brief check-in and strict security screening, they entered the building and took the stairs to the seventh floor. Just as they reached the front of the apartment, the door was pulled open from within. The person who answered was a large, chubby young man with slightly wavy hair, a plump physique, and a fair-skinned double chin. He held a mug of hot drink that wafted a rich aroma and offered them a friendly wave. Old Qi said, "Little Brother Chen, this is Wu Bei. He's only a few years older than you, a resonator employed by our Tongxing Commission Company. He's a good guy, very warmhearted, always willing to lend a hand when someone's in trouble." Wu Bei grew a little embarrassed at the praise. Shifting his bulky frame aside, he called out, "Come on in, come on in." Once they stepped inside, Old Qi, knowing time was short, skipped the pleasantries and explained the situation straight away. Wu Bei asked in a low voice, "Did you bring the body?" Old Qi said, "It's down in my car." "Alright, let me take a look..." Wu Bei closed his eyes. Chen Chuan noticed faint light pulsing beneath his neck, the back of his head, and his skin—evidently dermal graft layers concealing the implants underneath. "Ugh..." After observing for a moment, Wu Bei suddenly clutched his neck, gasping as though suffocating. His face flushed bright red, and he swayed on his feet. Chen Chuan reached out and propped him up by the arm, effortlessly steadying the three-hundred-jin frame. Wu Bei drew ragged, heavy breaths, taking a good while to recover. He cast a grateful glance at Chen Chuan and said, "I'll transmit it to you right away..." Old Qi started, "I don't need—" But before he could finish, a violently shocking scene surged straight through his implant credential and slammed into his mind. He saw "himself" sitting inside the shack, talking with Xiaoman. Faint fragments of words drifted past: "...your brother..." "...sewer hunter..." "...human organ trafficking..." Then the door was kicked open with a bang. A dark-faced, sullen man barged inside. "He" shoved Xiaoman aside and clashed with the intruder. The first few exchanges went back and forth; even though the assailant wielded a blade, "he" relied on an implant arm to parry. Xiaoman managed to squeeze off a shot during a lull, but missed. Moments later, however, "his" arm abruptly seized. The muscle contraction failed to pull through, causing "him" to stumble forward instead. The blade thrust viciously into "his" abdomen, twisted hard, pulled free, and swept across "his" throat. A searing chill bloomed across the windpipe. As "he" collapsed, "he" clamped a hand around the blade, vaguely catching the sound of gunfire. Then the scene plunged into absolute darkness. Old Qi's face turned stark white. What had been transmitted was no mere visual recording; it carried Big Brother Chong's lingering memories, emotions, and sheer agony, making Old Qi feel as if he had personally lived through his own butchering. He too breathed heavily, propping his hands against his knees. Once he caught his breath, he could not help looking up to glare at Wu Bei. Wu Bei knew he had messed up. Scratching his head sheepishly, he said, "Sorry, Uncle Qi, I didn't mean to." He turned his gaze to Chen Chuan. In contrast, Chen Chuan's expression remained calm from start to finish, completely unaffected. Wu Bei's eyes widened. "Little Brother Chen, didn't you see it?" Chen Chuan said, "I saw it. Brother Wu, can you identify this person?" Wu Bei answered, "I can. Give me a second." Even if the other party was an ordinary citizen, as long as his appearance was known, his records could be pulled up through the official non-active conscious entity. Before long, he said, "Found him. Bo Chen... commissioner..." Following the biological field exchange from that moment, he traced further to a vehicle. "Citizen Lang Teng... commissioner... and another one... huh?" He suddenly tilted his head. The light under his skin flickered as he patted his chest in lingering dread. "That was close... close call..." Turning to the two of them, he said, "The last person's biological field was wiped clean. When I tried to trace it, I almost triggered the field feedback they left behind. I was nearly exposed. That one's probably a resonator too." Chen Chuan asked, "They're commissioners? Which company do they belong to?" Wu Bei shook his head. "Not a commission company. They belong to an independent commission team called Golden Shrimp." At that name, Old Qi's expression shifted. He muttered, "I should have known." Chen Chuan looked over. "Old Qi, you know them?" "Little Brother Chen, remember that group I told you about, the ones who kept taking that anomalous commission? It's them!" Old Qi thought for a moment. "Still, this is too much of a coincidence. There has to be a reason." He checked through his boundary credential and found that the anomalous commission now showed as completed. Scrolling back through the records, he discovered a previous cancellation status with the stated reason: *Commission completed; requesting refund of commission deposit.* "No wonder..." Old Qi shook his head and looked up. "I told them not to try asking for the deposit back. It was only asking for trouble. Once a cancellation is filed, the deposit is frozen after one day pending verification, and a second verification the following day allows the requester to retrieve most of the funds, minus platform fees." In a tone dripping with disgust, he added, "Those bastards in Golden Shrimp don't play fair. Once money hits the platform, they treat it like it's already in their pockets. Leaving it alone would have been fine, but asking for it back was guaranteed to draw their attention." Chen Chuan considered this. From the looks of it, that very request had likely provoked the team into sending someone to murder Xiaoman. To people like that, swinging by to slaughter a kid was probably no more than an errand on their way through. Big Brother Chong happened to be with Xiaoman at the time, so he was killed alongside him. In that case, the next step was to find this Golden Shrimp team. He said to Wu Bei, "Thank you, Brother Wu." "Ah, don't mention it, don't mention it." Chen Chuan said, "Sorry for bothering you. We'll take our leave. Old Qi, let's go." Wu Bei looked as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only scratched his head and held his tongue, seeing the two of them to the door. Once outside, Old Qi asked, "Little Brother Chen, what do we do next?" Chen Chuan straightened his collar, quickening his pace. "Old Qi, head back first. I'm going to take care of the man who did the killing." "Wait, Little Brother Chen, that's an entire commission team! They'll definitely gang up on you. Golden Shrimp's crew is no pushover—they've got fighters, and probably guns too..." Old Qi hurried after him, anxiously warning him. Chen Chuan paused and turned his head slightly. "If that's the case..." he said in a calm, steady voice, "...then I'll just deal with all of them together." With that, he strode out into the open.